SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all.

A treacherous away tie at Dundee United lay in front of us as we reached the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup. On paper,this was a tricky one,and against a team who have already caused us a few problems this season. And given the huns even more!

Ange sent out a team which looked ok to me on the recent form shown by the players selected-although it seems I may have been in a minority!-and I actually thought that the plan to play Maeda wider as a support striker for G-Mak was the right decision. I see Maeda staying there when Kyogo returns after the imminent international break. Though on current form,there’s no saying that G-Mak will be tossed aside when that happens. CalMac was moved deeper to allow O’Riley and Reo to play in their preferred positions. 

United started strongly last night. That’s to be expected when you are in a cup tie,you don’t get points for a draw in these games. And clearly their game plan was to nullify our usual early tempo,where we break teams down in the initial stages to set ourselves up for a comfortable ninety minutes. Well,that didn’t last long! About a dozen minutes,in fact,when CalMac fired in a shot from the edge of the area. He was always going to shoot from there,and United were dreadfully slow in closing him down. A deflection off Nicky Clark gave the keeper no chance. 

Thereafter,I thought it was largely one way traffic till half time,and Maeda should have had a goal when he found the back of the net. Beaton though found an old rule book which said that as the ball had brushed G-Mark’s arm on the way to him,it had to be disallowed. 

Wee hint,John. Read the updated laws on handball. 

Hatate was hooked at half time following a yellow for a dangerous challenge,with Rogic coming on as his replacement. Tam was no worse than our other four subs,all of whom struggled to make much of an impact. But it didn’t matter much as our one-touch man was intent on snapping up any loose balls in the goalmouth. One such chance arrived just before the hour,when the United keeper fumbled a cross. Our big forward doesn’t need a second invitation on these occasions,he just fired it into the net. 

Really that was the game over,though United still kept plugging away. And when Dembele,probably the best of our subs on the night,fired in a shot of his own,the ball deflected up in the air for the one-touch man to continue his incredible record. That’s nine goals for us and nine touches to score them. It would be ten and ten if he could take bliddy penalties,btw,but grateful thanks to CRAIG76 for that stat. 

So 30 domestic games on the bounce. Unbeaten. A home game against Ross County on Saturday followed by the international break. I’m not sure,but I believe the Scotland v Ukraine match has been postponed,so there is every chance that AP will have an opportunity to work for a solid fortnight with a good few of his top men. Others though will be away with their own country’s squads. We can further assess the fitness of Kyogo and maybe get him up to speed match-wise. 

For a side who looked to be in some trouble less than five months ago,which has suffered ridiculous injury problems,had a huge turnover of playing staff,I would hazard an opinion that we are fairly well-placed,all things considered. Certainly better than this time last year! With eight league games to fulfill,and a cup semi final against our foe malign,we might just be looking at ten games to really scunner the vast majority of the media and the general population. Especially one small section of that. Which has put a smile on my face,even after a twelve-hour night shift!

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Above article by BMCUWP


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